Tough, roomy Toyota feels at home in Labrador
Equipped with all-wheel drive and navigation, the RAV-4 XLE excels
It came as a shock to me that the population of Labrador is only 28,248. Want to get away from it all? “The Big Land,” as locals refer to Labrador, would seem to be the place.
But getting to Labrador by road is something of a challenge. Most visitors arrive via ferry from Newfoundland, and as many of us know, getting to Newfoundland itself is no small task.
We cheated. We flew to Deer Lake, Nfld., and picked up a 2014 Toyota RAV4 out of Corner Brook. The destination was Red Bay, meaning we’d be driving from Deer Lake to St. Bare and taking the ferry to BlancSablon where we would connect with the Trans Labrador Highway (TLH). But even though it was almost June, the ferry was not a sure thing. Pack ice in the Strait of Belle Isle, you see. Refusing to leave.
Our RAV4, a $31,080 XLE with all-wheel drive and navigation, was perfect for a drive like this. Canadian-built, the RAV4 features excellent cargo capacity, even without the rear seats folded (there were four of us, plus luggage), sufficient power from its 178-horsepower, 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine, and good fuel economy, too.
The six-speed automatic transmission was certainly diving into lower gears when climbing the steep hills through Gros Morne National Park on the way to St. Barbe, but it was also intelligently down-shifting as required on the long descents. And the RAV4 had plenty of room for bottles, tablets, maps and snacks required for the typical road trip.
Fortunately, our ferry — the soonto-be-replaced MV Apollo, complete with vintage video games in the
Canadian-built, the RAV4 features excellent cargo capacity, even without the rear seats folded.
lounge — would make the crossing as scheduled. But we were surprised that a Coast Guard icebreaker lead the way. Normally you’d see whales in the Strait; this year it was thick ice and occasional iceberg chunks (or “bergy bits,” in local parlance).
After arriving at Blanc-Sablon, it’s a 100-km drive along the TLH Route 510 to Red Bay. The smooth-riding RAV4 wasn’t fazed by broken pavement and the occasional pothole; its all-wheel drive handling the muddy bits without fuss. We stopped early on at the Point Amour lighthouse, the tallest in Atlantic Canada. Built to last in 1857 with walls two metres thick at the base, you can climb to the very top and stand right next to the original cut glass lens overlooking the ocean. The coastal view, of course, is spectacular.
Beyond Point Amour, you’ll drive through a succession of small, picturesque coastal communities, their tidy, well-kept houses often featuring big windows facing the ocean and sometimes little “mini me” replicas out front (for the garbage, right?).
After ducking inland at Pinware for about 20 km, you emerge at Red Bay, population about 200, which until only a few years ago was literally the end of the road.
Canada’s newest World Heritage Site (listed in 2013), Red Bay is a former whaling station used by Basque mariners over a 70-year period from the late 1540s to the early 1600s. Each year, for up to nine months a year, a thousand men would converge on what is now Red Bay in galleons to hunt whales.
They’d process their catch into oil and load it onto the galleons in barrels made on site. Whale oil fuelled lamps in Europe for centuries, along with finding uses in the emerging industrial economy as a lubricant for machines. This was the original “Big Oil.”
Surprisingly, Red Bay’s role in this story was not known until 1980, when it was rediscovered by Canadian researcher, Selma Barkham, sleuthing through ancient wills, ledgers and maps in Spain. So at a time when the town’s fishery was collapsing, Red Bay acquired a new identity as the location of the world’s earliest known and best-preserved example of a pre-industrial whaling station.
After excavation in the 1980s, four galleons and numerous smaller vessels were found at the bottom of Red Bay; one of the galleons, the San Juan, is now regarded as the best preserved anywhere in the world.
Personal items were found on land and under water, including woollen clothing and leather shoes. The San Juan’s anchor was brought to the surface, preserved in the icy water under a layer of silt, along with the world’s oldest known whaleboat and ship’s binnacle. They’re on display in the local museum. This is an amazing place to visit, its history and significance still being catalogued and interpreted.
While in Red Bay, our RAV4 mostly remained parked next to the Whaler’s Restaurant (Marilyn is the owner; try the codfish dinner and bakeapple pie). The people of Red Bay are friendly and enthusiastic about their town’s future and its World Heritage designation, so look for interesting developments here over the next few years.